Economics
Issue #3: Capitalism or Socialism?
Washington and Du Bois also differed in their faith in American capitalism as the primary road to African American prosperity.
Booker T. Washington
During the Gilded Age, an era of Big Capital and new industrial millionaires, the gulf between rich and poor was growing. Economic advancement became the most important measure of the success of an individual and the success of a race.
Washington was a close friend of some of the wealthiest capitalists and philanthropists of his day, such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie; Julius Rosenwald, head of Sears Roebuck & Co.; and John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil. All donated money to Washington’s school, Tuskegee Institute. Washington strongly believed that with hard work, Black people could climb the ladder of success, and industrial education and occupations were the key.
W. E. B. Du Bois
Du Bois, like Washington, believed that economic advancement was central to race progress in America. But he took his criticism of capitalism much farther than Washington was willing to do.
Du Bois described himself as a “Socialist of the Path,” who believed that the best road to economic salvation was “greater public ownership of the public wealth for the public good. . . .” He argued that in order to eliminate discrimination against African Americans, American economic policy had to provide opportunities for their employment and social welfare. He believed that socialism would help African Americans preserve their culture and be free of poverty.
Take Notes
Based upon their positions on economic policy, who do you believe had a better vision for improving the conditions of African Americans in the early 1900s, Booker T. Washington or W. E. B. Du Bois, and why?
Mississippi Sharecropper’s wife in front of cabin, 1939.
